Thursday, February 10, 2005

Movie Review -- AVP

Growing up, I was always a fan of the Alien movies. It seems like a lifetime ago that the first Alien popped up on HBO and scared me to death. Even though R movies were a no-no in our house, I still found time to catch a few minutes of the Alien movies here and there.

Then came Predator. What red-blooded American male wouldn't enjoy watching Predator over and over and over...you get the idea...again? Contrary to most, I even like the sequel starring Danny Glover. It's one of the only movies I've seen that portrays humans as prey for sport.

As you can now guess, I was excited to hear about Alien vs. Predator (AVP). Combining the two alien races into a common story makes perfect sense and provides endless opportunities for interesting story lines and a lot of action. If you've seen the movie, it goes without saying that Hollywood found a way to screw up something good.

Strangely enough, the backstory was one of the most interesting parts of the movie. It weaves the Predator story into human mysteries like the Pyramids and provides intriguing groundwork for how the Predators and Aliens end up fighting each other.

The rest of it was pure garbage except for far too few frames of fight sequences between Predators and Aliens. Even those, in my opinion, were poorly done and seemed more the product of flipping a coin as to who would win what battle.

Its only saving grace was the Alien-style ending which I won't spoil here.

My recommendation...wait for it to hit Saturday afternoon TBS and don't expect much.